Almost as good as an LCD
Written: Feb 04 '02 (Updated Feb 20 '02)
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Pros: Large, clear picture, fast refresh, excellent price
Cons: Warm-up time, during which size/geometry settings may be inaccurate
The Bottom Line: You can't beat this monitor for its combination of high image quality, low price, and elegant looks.
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| ceconrad's Full Review: LG Flatron 795FT Plus CRT Monitor |
This opinion was originally posted in August 2001, but has been re-dated because it was moved to a new category (Flatron 795FT Plus instead of Flatron 795FT).
For me, LCD panels are the "gold standard" of computer displays. So you'll see me compare this monitor to LCD displays a number of times. After being issued an IBM ThinkPad laptop at work, I've found it difficult to look at and like any CRT monitor.
However, Lucky Goldstar's Flatron 795FT Plus (hereafter called the LG 795 or just the 795) comes close to the quality of LCD with a price that can't be beat.
(I understand that for some people, the slow update, limited viewing angles, and inferior color of LCDs make them an unsuitable choice. Read on and you'll understand what I do like about LCD's, and why this monitor comes so close to being as good as one.)
I work for a software company and have used many different computer monitors over the years. The enemies of good displays are poor focus, image flicker/motion, glare/poor contrast, and image impurities. (What I mean by image impurities is extraneous lines or other artifacts that are not actually part of the image.)
Focus
In the focus department, all CRTs fall short of the perfection exhibited by LCDs, and the LG 795 is no exception. Having said that, the LG is very good. I can view small fonts on this monitor at my chosen resolution (1152 x 864) for a long time without eyestrain. Small "i"s, "w"s, and "m"s in white print on a blue Windows desktop are all easily distinguishable.
Image Flicker/Motion
CRTs work by sweeping an electron gun across a phosphorus screen (making the individual bits of phosphorus glow) many times per second to trick our eyes into seeing an image. Unfortunately, if you don't do this fast enough, human eyes can detect flicker at the rate of the sweep, known as the refresh rate. (This is something LCD displays are not burdened with.) The higher the refresh rate, then more stable the image appears to be.
If you're moving from a smaller 14 or 15 inch display up to a 17 inch or larger display, the first thing you may notice is that, at the same refresh rate you used to use, the new larger display appears to exhibit more flicker. (I'm sure that there is a good technical explanation for this that either relates to perception or maybe to faster fading phosphorus in the newer monitors?) Whatever the reason, if you're like me you'll find that 60Hz is unacceptable, and the 72Hz or 75Hz that used to satisfy you may no longer do the trick. The answer, thankfully enough, is to crank up the display refresh rate to 85Hz or 100Hz. The problem is that some monitors, like the LG 775 (the 795's runt little brother), can't handle high resolutions at high refresh rates.
The 795 handles it beautifully. My 795 presents a nice, stable picture at both 85Hz and 100Hz. My eyes can't detect any flicker or motion at either setting, so I use the lower setting on the theory that there's no point driving the hardware any faster than necessary.
It is worth noting that both the 775 and the 795 display some noticeable flicker and some horizontal image shake at refresh rates of 75Hz and lower. In fact, I had at first purchased the 775 until I noticed this characteristic. My supplier graciously allowed my to trade up to a 795, which supports higher resolutions at higher refresh rates, and this solved the problem.
Glare/Brightness/Contrast
This is one of the few things that CRTs actually do better than LCDs. And, thanks to its perfectly flat screen with anti-glare coating, this particular CRT exhibits especially little glare. It also has very good brightness (I use mine at the 50% setting) and high contrast.
Image Purity
I recently compared my new LG 795 with a fairly expensive Sony monitor at work, and though the images were of comparable quality in terms of focus and contrast, the Sony monitor showed some horizontal lines on the screen that were not part of the image! Other impurities I've seen on displays in the past are shadows, bleeding from one part of the display to another, moire patterns, pixels stuck on or off (on LCDs), and vertical bands of color.
The 795 scores fairly highly in that it does not exhibit noticeable impurities except for one thing: Even after making the horizontal and vertical moire reduction adjustments, a very small amount of moire effect is still visible in certain situations (such as the weekend-day display in Outlook, in which every other pixel is black).
The rest of the review
To me, image quality is everything, but I'll quickly run through some other information about the 795 to make sure I don't leave any questions unanswered:
Image size/geometry/quality controls
The 795 has an excellent on-screen-display (OSD) menu system that is navigates with six very cool touch-sensitive metal buttons on the front of the monitor. There are 7 sub-menus: (1) Brightness and contrast, (2) Color, which allows you to choose a preset white balance or mix your own, (3) Image position, (4) Image size, (5) Image shape, which has no fewer than 9 different ways to adjust the images geometry!, (6) Setup, which allows you to set the input signal level, the DDC "plug and play" behavior, the OSD language, the OSD position on the screen, and a couple of other parameters, and (7) Special, which includes a degauss function, another OSD parameter, and settings for moire, convergence, and color purity.
If all of these setting seem daunting, be comforted by knowing that the 795 is perfectly viewable out of the box with little or no adjustment, but the myriad of settings help perfectionists like me to get the display just the way I like it. The 795 also remembers your settings for each display mode, so that if I were to switch to 1600x1200 at 75Hz and then readjust the image size and shape etc., when I switch back to 1152x864 at 85Hz, the monitor reapplies the settings I was using before for 1152x864 at 85Hz.
Be aware that the image will vary somewhat in size and shape as the monitor warms up. For this reason, the manual cautions you against wasting your time with all of the settings mentioned above until the monitor has been on (and actively displaying something!) for 30 minutes. If you monitor goes into a power saving mode (see below), then you must awaken the monitor (by moving your mouse or some other such action) and then wait the 30 minutes again before the image size and shape is stable. (In theory. I've not actually timed how long it takes for the image to reach it's final resting place, as it were. It's most of the way there much sooner than 30 minutes.)
Energy-saving features
The 795 bears a TCO 99 Ecology Energy Emissions and Ergonomics sticker, and supports the automatic shutdown settings of Windows.
Size
With the integrated tilt/swivel stand, it is 16.3 inches wide, 17.3 inches high, and 17.1 inches deep. It fits fine on my narrow, deep IKEA work desk, but a 19 inch monitor would not fit.
Weight
42.3 lbs. I was able to move it without much difficulty in the back seat of my 97 Honda Civic sedan. The box has well-placed handles that allow one person to handle it.
Software
The software drivers, while not strictly necessary, help Windows to known the characteristics of the monitor for purposes of color mapping and so that the control panel knows which resolution and refresh modes the monitor will support. These were a snap to install.
USB
The Plus in LG Flatron 795FT Plus refers to the integrated 4-port USB hub at the back of the monitor. I wasn't looking for this feature, but the hub does work as advertised with no problems. It is handy when you have more than one or two USB devices, or if you move the computer tower away from the monitor and keyboard. There is a driver that gets installed for this, but I've no idea what it does.
A note on video cards
Remember that to some extent, your monitor is only as good as your video card. There are some video cards that suffer from poor analogue output that results in a poorly-focused image or other problems. Your maximum supported resolution, color depth, and refresh rate and also functions of the card as much as the monitor.
A note on my supplier
I purchased my 795 from Calgary's Memory Express (http://www.memoryexpress.net), a fine establishment with excellent service and unbeatable prices. My LG795Plus came to a total of CAD405.53, including GST!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 235
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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Epinions.com ID:
ceconrad
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Member: Chad Conrad
Location: Calgary, AB, Canada
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:Husband, father, pilot, and business systems analyst. See my bio.
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